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Australia
Practice report

Rolex 24: Ganassi Cadillac leads night practice at Daytona

Chip Ganassi Racing's Renger van der Zande set a startling lap time to head the field by 0.313sec at the end of a 105-minute third practice session for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

#01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi: Renger van der Zande, Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson, Kevin Magnussen

#01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi: Renger van der Zande, Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson, Kevin Magnussen

Art Fleischmann

The #01 Cadillac DPi-V.R headed the times for most of the session, initially thanks to Ganassi's endurance extra Scott Dixon, before van der Zande ensured the car wouldn’t be beaten with a 1min34.146sec lap.

That was 0.3sec inside the race lap record and a similar amount ahead of Ricky Taylor, who left it late to send the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 surging up the timesheets for P2.

Felipe Nasr was another who left it until the final 20mins to jump the #31 Action Express Racing Caddy forward, ahead of Loic Duval’s best in JDC Miller MotorSports entry.

Simon Pagenaud, in the second AXR Cadillac, precisely matched his fellow IndyCar driver with a time 0.58sec off P1 and 0.2sec ahead of another Frenchman Olivier Pla in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura.

The sole Mazda completed just one shakedown lap at the end of the session, the team electing to spend the evening on scheduled maintenance, fitting a fresh engine and gearbox.

PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports maintained its preeminence in LMP2, Mikkel Jensen’s best lap being around a quarter-second up on Matthieu Vaxiviere in the Tower Motorsport by Starworks machine. Robert Kubica set the third-fastest time in the High Class Racing entry.

In LMP3, Jeroen Bleekemolen overcame an early hitch to turn the fastest lap in class, his Riley Motorsports Ligier finishing up 0.15sec ahead of Laurents Hoerr in the Muehlner Motorsports Duqueine.

Yann Clairay collected some damage to the Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier but co-driver Wayne Boyd still wound up third fastest in class.

In GT Le Mans, Corvette Racing’s C8.Rs ended the session 1-2, new recruit Nick Tandy less than a tenth of a second ahead of reigning champion Antonio Garcia.

Davide Rigon’s best lap in the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 was just hundredths more tardy, and put him ahead of the WeatherTech Racing Proton Porsche and the two BMW M8s.

Marco Mapelli saved his best until last to top GT Daytona in the #111 Grasser Racing Lamborghini Huracan, 0.15sec ahead of Aaron Telitz as the Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC Fs appeared to find a significant chunk of speed.

The second Lexus of Frankie Montecalvo finished fourth, separated from the sister car by the ever impressive Earl Bamber in the Team Hardpoint EBM Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Aidan Read was fifth in the Turner Motorsports BMW M6, ahead of Maro Engel in the Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Fourth and final practice will be 1 hour in duration and starts at 11.20am local (Eastern) time on Friday.

Session results:

Cla Num Driver Class Chassis Time Gap
1 01 Netherlands Renger van der Zande
Denmark Kevin Magnussen
New Zealand Scott Dixon
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'34.146
2 10 United States Ricky Taylor
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United States Alexander Rossi
Brazil Helio Castroneves
DPi Acura DPi 1'34.459 0.313
3 31 Brazil Felipe Nasr
United Kingdom Mike Conway
Brazil Pipo Derani
United States Chase Elliott
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'34.653 0.507
4 5 France Tristan Vautier
France Loic Duval
France Sébastien Bourdais
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'34.726 0.580
5 48 United States Jimmie Johnson
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
France Simon Pagenaud
Germany Mike Rockenfeller
DPi Cadillac DPi 1'34.726 0.580
6 60 United States Dane Cameron
France Olivier Pla
Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
United States A.J. Allmendinger
DPi Acura DPi 1'34.964 0.818
7 52 United States Ben Keating
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
United States Scott Huffaker
France Nicolas Lapierre
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'36.033 1.887
8 8 Canada John Farano
France Gabriel Aubry
France Timothé Buret
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'36.290 2.144
9 20 Denmark Dennis Andersen
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
Denmark Anders Fjordbach
Poland Robert Kubica
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'36.696 2.550
10 29 Netherlands Frits van Eerd
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Netherlands Job Van Uitert
France Charles Milesi
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'36.747 2.601
11 81 United States Rob Hodes
Canada Garett Grist
Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'36.801 2.655
12 47 Italy Roberto Lacorte
Italy Antonio Fuoco
Italy Andrea Belicchi
Italy Giorgio Sernagiotto
LMP2 Dallara LMP2 1'37.046 2.900
13 18 United States Dwight Merriman
United Kingdom Kyle Tilley
United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel
France Paul-Loup Chatin
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'37.277 3.131
14 82 United States Eric Lux
Canada Devlin DeFrancesco
Germany Fabian Schiller
Germany Christopher Mies
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'37.555 3.409
15 11 United States Thomas Steven
United States Tristan Nunez
United States Thomas Merrill
United Kingdom Matthew Bell
LMP2 ORECA LMP2 07 1'37.590 3.444
16 51 United States Cody Ware
Turkey Salih Yoluc
United States Austin Dillon
Germany Sven Muller
LMP2 Ligier LMP2 1'39.048 4.902
17 91 United States Jim Cox
United States Dylan Murry
United States Austin McCusker
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'42.492 8.346
18 4 United States Tommy Milner
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
United Kingdom Alexander Sims
GTLM Corvette C8.R 1'42.586 8.440
19 6 Germany Moritz Kranz
Germany Hoerr Laurents
United States Kenton Koch
Stevan McAleer
LMP3 Duqueine D08 1'42.663 8.517
20 3 Spain Antonio Garcia
United States Jordan Taylor
Netherlands Nick Catsburg
GTLM Corvette C8.R 1'42.669 8.523
21 62 United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
France Jules Gounon
Italy Davide Rigon
GTLM Ferrari 488 GTE 1'42.711 8.565
22 79 United States Cooper MacNeil
France Kevin Estre
Austria Richard Lietz
Italy Gianmaria Bruni
GTLM Porsche 911 RSR - 19 1'42.729 8.583
23 24 United States John Edwards
Finland Jesse Krohn
Brazil Augusto Farfus
Germany Marco Wittmann
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'43.050 8.904
24 33 United States Lance Willsey
Portugal Joao Barbosa
United Kingdom Wayne Boyd
France Yann Clairay
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'43.289 9.143
25 74 United States Gar Robinson
United States Spencer Pigot
Australia Scott Andrews
United States Oliver Askew
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'43.342 9.196
26 25 United States Connor de Phillippi
Austria Philipp Eng
Germany Timo Glock
Canada Bruno Spengler
GTLM BMW M8 GTE 1'43.393 9.247
27 54 United States Jon Bennett
United States George Kurtz
United States Colin Braun
United States Matt McMurry
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'43.439 9.293
28 38 Sweden Rasmus Lindh
Canada Cameron Cassels
Guatemala Mateo Llarena
United States Ayrton Ori
LMP3 Ligier JS P320 1'44.086 9.940
29 7 United States Mark Kvamme
United States Ryan Norman
Colombia Gabby Chaves
United States Charles Finelli
LMP3 Duqueine D08 1'45.269 11.123
30 111 Switzerland Rolf Ineichen
Italy Mirko Bortolotti
Netherlands Steijn Schothorst
Italy Marco Mapelli
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'45.593 11.447
31 14 United States Aaron Telitz
United Kingdom Oliver Gavin
United States Kyle Kirkwood
United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'45.596 11.450
32 88 United States Rob Ferriol
New Zealand Earl Bamber
United Kingdom Katherine Legge
Denmark Christina Nielsen
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'45.658 11.512
33 12 United States Robert Megennis
United States Zach Veach
United States Townsend Bell
United States Frankie Montecalvo
GTD Lexus RC F GT3 1'45.752 11.606
34 96 United States Bill Auberlen
United States Robby Foley
Australia Aidan Read
United States Colton Herta
GTD BMW M6 GT3 1'45.852 11.706
35 57 United States Russell Ward
United Kingdom Philip Ellis
Netherlands Indy Dontje
Germany Maro Engel
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 1'45.915 11.769
36 21 France Simon Mann
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Brazil Daniel Serra
Italy Matteo Cressoni
GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 1'45.946 11.800
37 44 United States John Potter
United States Andy Lally
United States Spencer Pumpelly
Germany Mario Farnbacher
GTD Acura NSX GT3 1'45.946 11.800
38 97 United States Maxwell Root
Ireland Charles Eastwood
United States Ben Keating
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 1'45.974 11.828
39 75 Australia Kenny Habul
Italy Raffaele Marciello
Canada Mikael Grenier
Germany Luca Stolz
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 1'45.989 11.843
40 16 United States Ryan Hardwick
United States Patrick Long
Belgium Jan Heylen
Austria Klaus Bachler
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'46.043 11.897
41 9 Canada Zacharie Robichon
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
Germany Lars Kern
Australia Matt Campbell
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'46.076 11.930
42 23 United Kingdom Ian James
Canada Roman De Angelis
United Kingdom Darren Turner
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
GTD Aston Martin Vantage GT3 1'46.142 11.996
43 19 Canada Mikhail Goikhberg
France Franck Perera
Spain Albert Costa
Germany Tim Zimmermann
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'46.161 12.015
44 63 United Arab Emirates Ed Jones
United States Bret Curtis
Australia Ryan Briscoe
Brazil Marcos Gomes
GTD Ferrari 488 GT3 1'46.204 12.058
45 28 Canada Daniel Morad
United States Michael de Quesada
United States Billy Johnson
Germany Maximilian Buhk
GTD Mercedes-AMG GT3 1'46.272 12.126
46 1 United States Bryan Sellers
United States Madison Snow
United States Corey Lewis
Italy Andrea Caldarelli
GTD Lamborghini Huracan GT3 1'46.476 12.330
47 64 United States Ted Giovanis
United States Owen Trinkler
United States Hugh Plumb
United States Matt Plumb
GTD Porsche 911 GT3 R 1'46.841 12.695
48 42 United States Alan Metni
United States Andrew Davis
United States J.R. Hildebrand
United States Don Yount
GTD Audi R8 LMS GT3 1'47.240 13.094
49 55 United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
United States Jonathan Bomarito
DPi Mazda DPi 0.000

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